Electronics

What are the best laptops for programming and CAD work?

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Dell XPS 15 vs Apple MacBook Pro vs HP Omen 17

 vs Origin PC EON17-SLX vs Razer Blade Pro vs MacBook vs Microsoft Surface Book 2 (15-inch) vs Dell Precision 5510 vs Lenovo ThinkPad P50 vs MSI VR Ready GE62VR vs Apple Macbook Pro

Specs

GPU

Intel HD Graphics 630 / NVIDIA GTX 1050 with 4GB GDDR5

RAM

8 / 16 / 32GB DDR4 at 2400MHz

CPU

Intel Core i3-7100H / Intel Core i5-7300HQ / Intel Core i7-7700HQ

Storage

500GB HDD + 32GB Flash / 1TB HDD + 32GB Flash / 256/512GB/1TB PCIe SSD

Weight

2kg (4.44 lbs)

Ports

1 HDMI 1.4 2 USB 3.0 with PowerShare 1 Thunderbolt™ 3 (2 lanes of PCI Express Gen 3) Supports: Power In / Charging, PowerShare, Thunderbolt 3 (40Gbps Bi-Directional), 3.1 USB Gen 2 (10Gbps), VGA, HDMI, Ethernet and USB-A via Dell Adapter

Webcam

720p

Wireless

802.11 AC & Bluetooth 4.0

Aspect Ratio

16:9

Trackpoint

No

Display

15.6-inch FHD (1920x1080) / 15.6-inch UltraSharp™ 4K Ultra HD (3840x2160) Touch display

Battery

56 / 97WHr

Display Size

15.6 inches

Size

14.06 x 9.27 x 0.45-0.66-inches

Operating System

Windows 10

SD reader

Yes

Release date for the most recent model

2017

Touchpad Size

4.1 x 3.1 inches

Screen size

-

Display Resolution

-

Screen resolution

-

CPU

-

Display size

-

Release date

-

Card Reader

-

Memory

-

Dimensions

-

Wi-Fi

-

Bluetooth

-

Connections

-

Graphics

-

Chipset

-

Operating Systems

-

Soundcard

-

Display Options

-

Card Slots

-

Power Adaptor

-

Release Date

-

3DMark Score (FireStrike)

-

GPU

Apple M1 8 core

RAM

8/16GB

CPU

-

Storage

-

Weight

3.02lbs

Ports

2/4 Thunderbolt 3 Ports, Headphone jack

Webcam

720p

Wireless

802.11 a/b/g/n/ac & Bluetooth 4.0

Aspect Ratio

16:10

Trackpoint

No

Display

13.3 in 2560x1600 IPS

Battery

-

Display Size

-

Size

-

Operating System

-

SD reader

-

Release date for the most recent model

-

Touchpad Size

-

Screen size

13.3inch / 15.4inch

Display Resolution

2880x1800 for the 15" version, 2560x1600 for the 13" version

Screen resolution

-

CPU

-

Display size

-

Release date

-

Card Reader

-

Memory

-

Dimensions

-

Wi-Fi

-

Bluetooth

-

Connections

-

Graphics

-

Chipset

-

Operating Systems

-

Soundcard

-

Display Options

-

Card Slots

-

Power Adaptor

-

Release Date

-

3DMark Score (FireStrike)

-

GPU

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050

RAM

16GB

CPU

-

Storage

512GB SSD + 2TB HDD

Weight

6.3 pounds

Ports

3x USB 3.0 HDMI DisplayPort mini SD card reader 3.5mm combo jack RJ45

Webcam

-

Wireless

-

Aspect Ratio

-

Trackpoint

-

Display

-

Battery

-

Display Size

-

Size

-

Operating System

-

SD reader

-

Release date for the most recent model

-

Touchpad Size

-

Screen size

17.7inch

Display Resolution

-

Screen resolution

4K

CPU

Intel Core i3/i5/i7

Display size

-

Release date

-

Card Reader

-

Memory

-

Dimensions

-

Wi-Fi

-

Bluetooth

-

Connections

-

Graphics

-

Chipset

-

Operating Systems

-

Soundcard

-

Display Options

-

Card Slots

-

Power Adaptor

-

Release Date

-

3DMark Score (FireStrike)

-

GPU

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080

RAM

32GB

CPU

Intel Core i7

Storage

Up to 1TB SSD

Weight

-

Ports

-

Webcam

-

Wireless

-

Aspect Ratio

-

Trackpoint

-

Display

-

Battery

-

Display Size

-

Size

-

Operating System

-

SD reader

-

Release date for the most recent model

-

Touchpad Size

-

Screen size

17inch

Display Resolution

-

Screen resolution

4K

CPU

-

Display size

-

Release date

-

Card Reader

-

Memory

-

Dimensions

-

Wi-Fi

-

Bluetooth

-

Connections

-

Graphics

-

Chipset

-

Operating Systems

-

Soundcard

-

Display Options

-

Card Slots

-

Power Adaptor

-

Release Date

-

3DMark Score (FireStrike)

-

GPU

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080

RAM

32GB

CPU

Intel Core i7-6700HQ

Storage

Up to 2TB SSD

Weight

7.8 lbs / 3.5kg

Ports

3xUSB-3.0, 1xUSB-C, HDMI,

Webcam

-

Wireless

-

Aspect Ratio

-

Trackpoint

-

Display

-

Battery

-

Display Size

-

Size

-

Operating System

-

SD reader

-

Release date for the most recent model

-

Touchpad Size

-

Screen size

-

Display Resolution

-

Screen resolution

-

CPU

-

Display size

-

Release date

-

Card Reader

-

Memory

-

Dimensions

-

Wi-Fi

-

Bluetooth

-

Connections

-

Graphics

-

Chipset

-

Operating Systems

-

Soundcard

-

Display Options

-

Card Slots

-

Power Adaptor

-

Release Date

-

3DMark Score (FireStrike)

-

GPU

Intel HD Graphics 5300

RAM

8GB

CPU

1.1GHz Intel Core M Turbo Boost 2.4GHz / 1.2GHz Intel Core M Turbo Boost 2.6GHz

Storage

256GB / 512GB PCIe SSD

Weight

2.03 lbs

Ports

1xUSB-C

Webcam

480p

Wireless

802.11 ac a/b/g/n & Bluetooth 4.0

Aspect Ratio

16:10

Trackpoint

No

Display

-

Battery

-

Display Size

-

Size

-

Operating System

-

SD reader

-

Release date for the most recent model

-

Touchpad Size

-

Screen size

-

Display Resolution

-

Screen resolution

-

CPU

-

Display size

12inch

Release date

Aprl 2015

Card Reader

No

Memory

-

Dimensions

-

Wi-Fi

-

Bluetooth

-

Connections

-

Graphics

-

Chipset

-

Operating Systems

-

Soundcard

-

Display Options

-

Card Slots

-

Power Adaptor

-

Release Date

-

3DMark Score (FireStrike)

-

GPU

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060

RAM

-

CPU

8th Generation Intel Core i7

Storage

-

Weight

-

Ports

-

Webcam

-

Wireless

-

Aspect Ratio

-

Trackpoint

-

Display

-

Battery

-

Display Size

-

Size

-

Operating System

-

SD reader

-

Release date for the most recent model

-

Touchpad Size

-

Screen size

15"

Display Resolution

-

Screen resolution

-

CPU

-

Display size

-

Release date

-

Card Reader

-

Memory

8GB / 16GB

Dimensions

-

Wi-Fi

-

Bluetooth

-

Connections

-

Graphics

-

Chipset

-

Operating Systems

-

Soundcard

-

Display Options

-

Card Slots

-

Power Adaptor

-

Release Date

-

3DMark Score (FireStrike)

-

GPU

-

RAM

-

CPU

Intel i5 - 6440 HQ

Storage

256GB SSD

Weight

1.78kg to 2.02kg

Ports

-

Webcam

720p

Wireless

-

Aspect Ratio

-

Trackpoint

-

Display

-

Battery

56Whr /// 84Whr

Display Size

15.6 inches

Size

-

Operating System

-

SD reader

-

Release date for the most recent model

-

Touchpad Size

-

Screen size

-

Display Resolution

-

Screen resolution

-

CPU

-

Display size

-

Release date

-

Card Reader

-

Memory

8GB+

Dimensions

14.06 x 9.27 x 0.66 inches

Wi-Fi

802.11ac

Bluetooth

Bluetooth 4.1

Connections

2 USB 3.0 / 3.1 Gen1, 1 USB 3.1 Gen2, 1 HDMI, 1 Kensington Lock, Audio Connections: Audio combo in/out, Card Reader: SD, SDXC, SDHC, UHS-11

Graphics

Intel® Pro Graphics 530 & P530

Chipset

Mobile Intel CM236

Operating Systems

Win 7 Pro / Win 10 Pro / Win 10 Home / Ubuntu 14.04

Soundcard

Realtek High Definition Audio

Display Options

15.6" UltraSharp™ UHD IGZO (3840x2160) Touchscreen

Card Slots

SD/SDHC Card reader

Power Adaptor

130 Watt AC adapter

Release Date

-

3DMark Score (FireStrike)

-

GPU

NVIDIA Quadro M1000M 4GB (opt. M2000M 4GB)

RAM

16GB DDR4 (up to 64GB)

CPU

Intel 6th Gen. Core i7 or Xeon E3 5th Gen.

Storage

256GB SSD SATA3 (up to 1TB SSD)

Weight

Starting at 5.6 lbs (2.5 kg)

Ports

-

Webcam

-

Wireless

-

Aspect Ratio

-

Trackpoint

-

Display

-

Battery

-

Display Size

-

Size

-

Operating System

-

SD reader

-

Release date for the most recent model

-

Touchpad Size

-

Screen size

-

Display Resolution

-

Screen resolution

FHD 1920x1080 (250 nits) or 4K 3840 x 2160 (300 nits)

CPU

-

Display size

15.6" Anti-glare IPS (opt. touch screen & color calibration sensor)

Release date

-

Card Reader

-

Memory

-

Dimensions

-

Wi-Fi

-

Bluetooth

-

Connections

-

Graphics

-

Chipset

-

Operating Systems

-

Soundcard

-

Display Options

-

Card Slots

-

Power Adaptor

-

Release Date

2015-12-01

3DMark Score (FireStrike)

-

GPU

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060

RAM

16GB

CPU

6th Gen Intel Core i7-6700HQ

Storage

256GB SSD / 1TB HDD

Weight

-

Ports

2x USB 3.0 slots, 1x USB 3.0, audio headphone out/mic in combo, 1x HDMI 1.4 out, 1x mini-DP out, 1x RJ45 port, 1x Thunderbolt 3.0 port, 1x SD card reader.

Webcam

-

Wireless

-

Aspect Ratio

-

Trackpoint

-

Display

-

Battery

-

Display Size

-

Size

-

Operating System

-

SD reader

-

Release date for the most recent model

-

Touchpad Size

-

Screen size

-

Display Resolution

-

Screen resolution

1920 x 1080

CPU

-

Display size

-

Release date

-

Card Reader

-

Memory

-

Dimensions

-

Wi-Fi

-

Bluetooth

-

Connections

-

Graphics

-

Chipset

-

Operating Systems

-

Soundcard

-

Display Options

-

Card Slots

-

Power Adaptor

-

Release Date

-

3DMark Score (FireStrike)

15210

GPU

-

RAM

-

CPU

-

Storage

-

Weight

-

Ports

-

Webcam

-

Wireless

-

Aspect Ratio

-

Trackpoint

-

Display

-

Battery

-

Display Size

-

Size

-

Operating System

-

SD reader

-

Release date for the most recent model

-

Touchpad Size

-

Screen size

-

Display Resolution

-

Screen resolution

-

CPU

-

Display size

-

Release date

-

Card Reader

-

Memory

-

Dimensions

-

Wi-Fi

-

Bluetooth

-

Connections

-

Graphics

-

Chipset

-

Operating Systems

-

Soundcard

-

Display Options

-

Card Slots

-

Power Adaptor

-

Release Date

-

3DMark Score (FireStrike)

-

Pros + Cons

Pro
 Optional password-free-sign-in via a fingerprint reader

For an additional $25 it’s possible to enjoy a password-free-sign-in by having a fingerprint reader. It will keep your laptop safe while still providing convenient access to it.
Comment

Pro
 Can run most modern games

Being an excellent all-rounder, it can be used as a gaming laptop for games that are not exceptionally demanding, like Overwatch or Dota 2. Unless you’re using the cheapest model, you can expect a reasonable 60 frames per second for almost all modern games, provided that you’re willing to lower the game’s settings.
Comment

Pro
 Solid keyboard and trackpad

The keyboard and trackpad are reliable and solid all-around. The keyboard is responsive but is not super “clicky”, rather a bit soft. It has a white backlight on black keys that illuminates them at night. The touchpad is rather large while having no buttons. Despite this, the XPS 15 can reliably distinguish between the left and right clicks which are done on the trackpad itself.
Comment

Pro
 Good battery life if you pick the 1080p display

Models with the 1080p screen last about 10 hours with general usage. Naturally, if more intensive tasks are involved, the battery will be drained faster.
Comment

Pro
 Slick design

The whole design is quite stylish. The aluminium chassis provides a very clean look while the black carbon fiber palm rest with an almost borderless display cements it as a visually modern laptop. All of this is made with a premium build quality.
Comment

Pro
 Operates well on a Linux system

All essential things, like network connectivity, ports and sound, work right “out-of-the-box” with a Linux operating system. There is a compatibility issue on the new 9560 model with its graphics card but the laptop is still very usable with its integrated Intel graphics card.
Comment

Pro
 Amazing display

Two display choices are available for the XPS 15, an Ultra HD touchscreen or a Full HD non-touch screen. Both screens have a very wide array of colors as they cover approximately 100% of sRGB color space. The viewing angle is around 170 degrees. However, at 45 degrees, slight color change can be noticed. With around 350 nit output for brightness, it’s a viable choice for outdoor usage. All of this makes it an amazing display.
Comment

Pro
 Very well-rounded laptop

The cheapest configuration is a great choice for general non-intensive use - things like internet browsing, watching movies and similar tasks. Whereas the more expensive configurations are gradually more capable of intensive tasks, like video editing or gaming. It’s not as good as a specialized computer built for a specific purpose, like a video editing laptop with an enormous RAM size or a gaming laptop with a superior graphics card, but it’s a very well-rounded, reliable laptop.
Comment

Con
 Battery doesn’t hold long with the Ultra HD screen

If you’re choosing the configuration with an Ultra HD screen, expect a very short battery life of around 6 hours for general usage. With more intensive tasks it's even less than that.
Comment

Con
 9560 model's GPU has compatibility issues on Linux

The new 9560 model has some trouble accepting its GTX 1050 Ti video card while running a Linux operating system. Fortunately, the integrated Intel graphics card is capable enough to substitute it. The manufacturers are probably aware of the issue and will, most likely, release an update for it.
Comment

Con
 Audible coil whine

Coil whine can be heard when it’s generally quiet and the fans are not running. Audible when the laptop is connected to the power supply. The manufacturers have acknowledged it as a problem and, if possible, will push out an update which should eliminate it. Until then, it’s still a gripe.
Comment

Con
 Awkward webcam location

The webcam is located under the screen instead of on top. It means that your face will be shown from a lower angle which can seem a bit weird. It also means that your fingers can partially obstruct the webcam while you’re typing.
Comment

Con
 Noisy fans

The laptop is very quiet during idle and light usage but when there is some workload, the fans get quite loud and distracting.
Comment

Con
 Some ghosting in games

The display is not intended for gaming purposes so it can produce an effect called “ghosting”. Ghosting is when the pixels are not able to change their colors fast enough, so the color of the preceding frame can still be slightly seen on the next frame. This causes a blurring effect. Note that it only happens on high framerates coupled with fast objects.
Comment

Con
 Palmrest collects sweat

The palm rest is made from carbon fiber which attracts fingerprints and sweat. After some time it gets kind of unpleasant to touch and needs to be cleaned.
Comment

Con
 RAM is soldered in

A crippling, unmitigated rip-off which prevents you from upgrading the internal RAM.
Comment

Pro
 The OS is exceptionally easy to use

Macbooks are famous for working out of the box. The default operating system (macOS) is also exceptionally easy to use even for people who have never used it before. Most people will not need to customize or change anything since all the apps just work out of the box. The people who like to customize things and tinker with their systems will also find it pretty easy to do so, considering the fact that macOS is a Unix and allows varying degrees of control to users.
Comment

Pro
 Both the hardware and software are designed in-house

Both the operating system and the hardware are designed by Apple and are made to be as compatible as possible from the get-go. Any drawback that the hardware might have compared to competitors, is made up by the great compatibility between the hardware and OS. Furthermore, because Apple controls the hardware that goes inside their laptops, they can be sure that every OS release will be fully compatible even with their older hardware, ensuring software compatibility for many years after the laptop is released.
Comment

Pro
 Great performance

The MacBook pro offers great performance both for day-to-day stuff and more niche graphic-related activities. The latest model also has had an update in hardware specs where both the CPU and GPU have been upgraded to their respective latest generations. The 16GB to 32GB help with performance as well and the SSD speeds are unmatched in the laptop market which also helps with general performance.
Comment

Pro
 Plenty of RAM for multitasking

The MacBook Pro has up to 16 GB of RAM. That much RAM is perfect for running IDEs, emulators, and virtual machines.
Comment

Pro
 One of the best trackpads around

The Macbooks are renowned for having the best trackpad out of any laptop. It has full gesture support, you can configure in the software how much pressure you want before it physically clicks and the finger tracking is perfect.
Comment

Pro
 Good battery life

The battery drains in about 9 hours of typical use.
Comment

Pro
 Good stability

Comment

Pro
 One of the best SSDs that can be found on a laptop

With read speeds at 3.1Gbps and write speeds at around 4.7Gbps, the SSD used in the Macbook Pro is the best in the market by far. This doesn't just mean opening/saving files is quicker, but it also has a pretty huge impact on general application performance.
Comment

Pro
 OSX/macOS and most software apps have great HiDPI support

Comment

Pro
 New OSX updates run on older models for quite a long time

Comment

Pro
 Can run up to 3 external monitors and output 4K

With 2 Thunderbolt (DisplayPort) plugs and 1 HDMI, MBP can run up to 3 external monitors and output 4K over HDMI.
Comment

Pro
 Great keyboard

The 2017 Macbook uses the second generation of the "butterfly" keyboards first introduced in 2015. They feel different to use than most laptop keyboards as they are very shallow, but most people report really enjoying the keyboard after getting used to it.
Comment

Pro
 Fantastic display

The 13" MacBook Pro has a sharp, color accurate 2560 x 1600 IPS display. It's bright at 500 nits, has great viewing angles (viewable at up to 178 degrees) and capable of displaying 87.3% of sRGB color gamut.
Comment

Pro
 Very portable

The latest Macbook Pro has a trimmed down design compared to predecessors. It's 0.61 inches (15.5 mm) thick and and weighs 4.02 pounds. It's thinner than Macbook Air even.
Comment

Pro
 The default macOS is very developer friendly since it's a Unix

OSX is based on XNU (Darwin) kernel, it's certified Unix and arguably a lot more developer friendly than Windows. Development for Unix is native on OS X. There's a large selection of great development tools available for OSX. The operating system itself comes bundled with a powerful terminal emulator, called Terminal. Additionally, Apple provides tools, like Xcode, an IDE that contains a comprehensive collection of tools for developing OSX and iOS software, for free.
Comment

Pro
 Amazing build quality

The MacBook Pro has an all-aluminum body that looks great and is sturdy enough that worries of accidentally damaging are mostly alleviated. It has a robust lid, well-spaced back-lit keyboard with speakers on each side of the keyboard and an excellent button-less trackpad.
Comment

Pro
 Good customer support

Apple offers support over the phone worldwide, provides support in Apple retail stores and authorized resellers and has community forums where users can help users.
Comment

Con
 The default OS spies on you

Apple spies on its users, and helps others spy on them too. OSX needs to be wiped from the laptop and be replaced with Linux or another acceptable OS before it can be used. There have also been cases of security issues being reported and not fixed for quite some time. An example is a security issue in iTunes which was left unfixed for three years while it was being used by the government to collect data. These security issues may or may not be intentional, but other data collection is.
Comment

Con
 Hard to repair or upgrade the hardware

The battery and other components are glued in, and the battery blocks access to other parts. The battery will wear out eventually, and the fact that it's glued in means that Apple prevents you from easily repairing or upgrading a MacBook Pro.
Comment

Con
 Requires the use of proprietary firmware

The source code of the firmware isn't available for users to audit or modify.
Comment

Con
 No Ethernet or FireWire ports

An adapter is required to transfer data over FireWire or connect to the Internet using an Ethernet cable.
Comment

Con
 It's missing the ESC key, which is a hassle for VI users

There is no physical function or escape keys as they have been replaced by a touch screen, so if you're a big Vim user and don't want to change your habits, the Macbook might be a poor choice.
Comment

Con
 Terrible Linux support

The 2016 hardware has zero Linux compatibility due to new standards used by Apple. Until drivers are released for Linux, which there has been no news of, the 2016 Macbooks cannot be used for Linux at all.
Comment

Con
 You need dongles or a dock to connect USB-A devices

There are no USB-A ports, so you'll need a dongle or a dock to use things like webcams.
Comment

Con
 Limited gaming performance

The Macbook lacks a dedicated GPU, so gaming performance will be limited. That said it comes with the best integrated graphics on the market and will be able to play modern games on low settings well.
Comment

Con
 The keyboard is unique in how it feels and some people may need some time to get used to it

The keyboard on the Macbook is unique and some people may not like the way the keys feel to press or not having physical function keys.
Comment

Con
 Glossy screen

Apple has deleted the matte-screen option from its lineup, an unfortunate decision that reduces the usability of the computers and means you get less work done. You won't realize how much time you spend moving your head around to get reflections off whatever you're trying to see until you switch to a matte screen. Those "deep blacks" and "rich colors" that you were supposed to get from a glossy screen are not present, since they're buried behind a sheen of reflection under all lighting conditions.
Comment

Pro
 Standard, non-flashy look

This laptop is great for those who dislike the overly-gimmicky look that other gaming laptops go for. It doesn’t have big, stylized ventilation holes or dedicated gaming buttons or switches. The keyboard only has a plain red LED backlight, with no customization. The only outward indication that it’s a gaming laptop is the Omen logo at the back.
Comment

Pro
 Great display

The display is capable of producing 173% of the sRGB color space and has very good viewing angles. If calibrated, the laptop can be used for color sensitive work.
Comment

Con
 Has issues with cooling

Due to its narrow ventilation holes, the cooling fans need to spin faster in order to cool the laptop down. It can become so hot that it may become uncomfortable to touch the laptop, though the performance doesn’t suffer and doesn’t cause noticeable thermal throttling.
Comment

Con
 Comes in only one color option

The laptop comes in only one color option without the possibility to order a different one.
Comment

Pro
 Relatively portable for a gaming laptop

Compared to other gaming laptops, it is very slim--only 32mm thick and weighing 3.35 kg.
Comment

Pro
 Higher-end configurations can play 4K games at decent framerates

Even when purchased with minimal specs, you should be able to play comfortably in full HD resolution. Higher-end configurations with the nVidia GTX 1070 graphics card will allow you to enjoy 4K gaming in medium to high settings at playable framerates. The screen implements G-Sync technology that further smoothens action and prevents tearing.
Comment

Con
 The speakers lack bass

The speakers are loud, but they lack bass.
Comment

Pro
 Comes with top-tier hardware

This laptop comes with the absolute top-tier hardware. Even the base model is more powerful than the vast majority of the laptops you can buy today and will allow you to play nearly every game in 4K.
Comment

Con
 Not portable at all

The laptop isn’t built for those who need portability. A large portable bag and some muscle will be needed to carry it around. Weighing almost 5kg and being more than 4,5cm thick, it's one of the biggest laptops there is. Even the power adapter is twice as large comparing to a non-gamer laptops power adaptor and if you opt for a dual graphic card version, you will need two power adapters.
Comment

Pro
 Has one of the largest arrays of ports on the market

This laptop offers one of the widest variety of connections seen on a laptop. It has an HDMI and two Mini DisplayPort connections, for multi-monitor set-ups. There are five high-speed USB 3.0 ports, two new USB-C ports and an SD card slot. It even has two LAN ports with the ability to control the priority of traffic between two networks. Finally, you can connect audio equipment through four audio jack ports that supports 7.1 audio output.
Comment

Con
 The build quality of the body is not as good as the price suggests

Other than the backplate of the lid, which is metal, the rest of the body is made of plastic, which is mostly fine for a budget laptop but for this price a material of higher quality would be expected.
Comment

Con
 Poor battery life

Battery life is also an issue, although gamer laptops usually are power hungry, this only works for approximately two hours without a power supply.
Comment

Pro
 Good speakers

The built in speakers are very loud and crisp, easily filling a small room.
Comment

Pro
 Can be safely overclocked

The built-in speakers are large and very loud with a rich bass. Not only is it sufficient for most users, it’s also of better quality than the majority of built-in laptop speakers.
Comment

Pro
 Excellent performance for 4K games

4K games will run on medium or high settings with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX1070, the weakest graphics processor you can get in this laptop. If you want to run everything with the maximum settings, you have the option to install two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 cards that will run virtually any video game at max settings in 4K resolution.
Comment

Pro
 One of the best displays on the market

The Razer Blade Pro has easily one of the best touchscreen displays that can be found in any laptop. The colors look accurate and vivid, as it covers 185% of the sRGB color gamut. Brightness goes beyond the industry average and can provide a very bright picture. The screen also supports NVIDIA G-Sync that helps eliminate screen tearing and smooths out movement.
Comment

Pro
 Customizable RGB keyboard backlight

The keyboard’s RGB backlight can display 16.8 million colors on each key and the touchpad border. The included Synapse software lets you program the lights with different patterns and color profiles and is shareable to other Razer devices.
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Pro
 Great build quality

The chassis is made from aluminium and is very solid, giving the feel of a premium laptop.
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Pro
 Built to be portable

At 22mm thin, this is the thinnest laptop that has the NVIDIA GeForce 1080 and one of the thinnest gaming laptops overall.
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Pro
 Uses an actual mechanical keyboard

Razer uses ultra-low profile mechanical switches in the Blade Pro, which replicate full-sized mechanical keyboards. While it certainly makes the familiar, though noisy, clicking noise and is stiffer than a Chiclet keyboard, the travel is still too shallow compared to a regular mechanical keyboard.
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Pro
 Great gaming performance

While from the outside Blade Pro looks like an ordinary 17 inch laptop, it packs serious gaming laptop performance. It is because Razer has equipped this laptop with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 and one of the fastest mobile processors you can buy today. It can run almost any modern game in 4K resolution in high or maximum settings at upwards of 30 FPS.
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Con
 No 802.11ac support

The wireless network card does not support 802.11ac, a wireless standard with significant improvements over the previous 802.11n standard.
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Con
 May need some time to getting used to the position of the touchpad

The touchpad is located on the right side of the keyboard, and can take some time to get used to.
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Pro
 Amazing display

Everything about the display is very good - from its high resolution (2304x1440) to the brightness (325 nitts), uniform brightness distribution (90%), and high contrast ratio (1000:1) with over 95% of the sRGB spectrum. Overall, a great display which will come in handy for people who work with visual arts.
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Pro
 Decent keyboard

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Pro
 Very good speakers

The speakers, found above the keyboard produce loud and clear sound with minimal to no distortion whatsoever. They can be used for both listening to music and watching movies with no problem at all.
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Pro
 Available in 4 colors

The laptop is available in space gray, gold, silver and rose gold (pink) finishes.
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Pro
 Excellent trackpad

The MacBook has a large 4.4 x 2.7-inch Force Touch trackpad with a Taptic Engine that delivers haptic feedback whenever the user taps on it to give them the impression that they are actually clicking on it. It also supports gestures and multi-finger swiping. The accuracy is almost perfect and there's virtually no lag or stutter when using the trackpad.
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Pro
 Extremely portable

The laptop weighs just 2 pounds and is 13.1 mm thin. It's one of the thinnest and lightest laptops on the market and it's extremely portable and easy to carry around.
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Pro
 Completely silent operation

Thanks to the Core M processor (which doesn't require a fan) and the SSD storage, there are no moving parts the in MacBook. It will operate in complete silence.
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Pro
 macOS is developer-friendly

macOS is based on XNU (Darwin) kernel, it's a certified Unix and arguably a lot more developer friendly than Windows. Development for Unix is native on macOS. There's a large selection of great development tools available for macOS. The operating system itself comes bundled with a powerful terminal emulator, called Terminal. Additionally, Apple provides tools, like Xcode, an IDE that contains a comprehensive collection of tools for developing macOS and iOS software, for free. You can also install Homebrew, an extremely useful package manager.
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Pro
 Decent battery life

The battery lasts around 7h30m of continuous web browsing which is about average for this class of laptops. Where this laptop's battery truly shines though is under heavy stress where it manages to last an impressive 2h35m under a total stress test (maxed out brightness and processor usage - circumstances that you are likely never going to encounter in the real world).
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Con
 Connecting more than one thing requires a hub

The laptop comes with a single USB-C port that's used for charging as well as any other peripherals or external storage devices. Connecting more than one thing at a time requires using a USB hub.
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Con
 Not very powerful

With an Intel Core M processor, the Macbook isn't a serious development laptop. While it will get the job done for lighter tasks, it will struggle with heavier jobs.
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Con
 It's a bit hard to get used to the keyboard

The keys are pretty shallow, with a travel length of just 0.5mm. They still provide good feedback and the writing experience itself is not bad, but it's just a bit hard getting used to, especially if you are coming from a laptop that's not a MacBook.
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Pro
 Great display for creative professionals

This laptop's display is bright and vivid, making it perfect for people who do a lot of drawing, design, or video editing work. The display offers an excellent coverage of 131% of the sRGB colour gamut (the average for this price range is 101%). The colour coverage and the bright display which measures an average of 417 nits really makes colours truly pop out and offers lifelike pictures.
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Pro
 One of the best performances found on a 15-inch laptop

Equiped with an Intel Core i7-8650U CPU, 8GB (or 16GB) of RAM and an SSD that goes up to 1TB, the Surface Book 2 certainly packs a punch. It handles multitasking perfectly; you can open dozens of Chrome tags, stream video, and draw using the built-in software without experiencing any lag even once. As far as benchmarks go, on the Geekbench 4 overall performance benchmark, the Surface Book 2 got a score of 12,505, better than the 15-inch laptop average (11,004) coming third after the Dell XPS 15 (13,911) and the MacBook Pro (15,170).
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Pro
 The battery easily lasts a full work day on a single charge

The Surface Book 2 lasts on average 12 hours on a single charge. This should be more than enough to get anyone to the end of their workday on a single charge.
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Pro
 The hinge is quite stable as far as 2-in-1 laptops go

The new fulcrum hinge that Microsoft used for the Surface Book 2 is much more stable than the one found on the previous Surface Book or even other 2-in-1 laptops for that matter.
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Pro
 Great tying experience

Even though the keyboard is rather shallow (just 1.2mm of travel), the typing experience is excellent. Keys have a great amount of feedback when clicking and you rarely (if ever) bottom out when typing.
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Pro
 Gaming performance on-par with gaming laptops

The 15-inch version of the Surface Book 2 comes with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU. This is a powerful, VR-ready card that handles intensive gaming tasks. As for real-world performance, Hitman (1920 x 1080, ultra) runs at 71.9 frames per second, Grand Theft Auto V runs at 45 fps. It should also be mentioned that you need to be using the dock in order to do graphic-intensive tasks since that's where the GPU is located; using the laptop in tablet-mode will yield poor results in this regard.
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Con
 The pen must be bought separately

If you want to use the Surface Book for drawing then you will probably have to buy the Surface Pen which unfortunately does not come bundled with the laptop (it costs an additional $99).
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Con
 No Thunderbolt port

For a laptop aimed at creative professionals, the missing Thunderbolt 3 port is surprising considering the fact that Thunderbolt 3 is used to connect a laptop to peripherals such as external GPUs or power-dual 4K displays.
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Con
 Disappointing audio performance

The audio that comes out of the speakers is quite average. It's enough to fill a small room but that's it.
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Pro
 Great Linux support

The hardware is Ubuntu Certified. It makes sure that Ubuntu, and by extension other Linux distributions work right out-of-the-box without needing to mess with it to get basic things, like Wi-Fi or soundcard, to work.
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Pro
 Remarkable screen

There’s a choice between a Full HD and an Ultra HD screen. The Full HD is a matte-type screen with a native resolution of 1920 x 1080 while the Ultra HD has a glossy, touch-enabled surface which supports resolutions up to 3840 x 2160. Both screens have a very accurate color portrayal with approximately 100% of sRGB color space covered. They also have incredibly wide viewing angles. The brightness for the UHD screen is around 390 nits which is considered “very bright” and can easily be used outdoors. The FHD version has around 360 nits which is slightly worse but is also considered bright.
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Pro
 Reliable keyboard

The keyboard is covered with a soft coating that is pleasant to touch. The keys feel rather shallow with only 1.3mm travel distance but are still very responsive. It also has a backlight with three options - bright, dim and off.
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Pro
 Solid touchpad

The touchpad feels a bit slippery but is, otherwise, responsive and reliable. Several different gestures are available to make navigating with the touchpad easier. These gestures, like zoom, rotate, scroll and others, can be disabled via touchpad settings.
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Pro
 Great design

It looks strikingly clean. Built with an aluminium chassis it presents itself as a luxurious laptop. When opened, it has a sleek, dark carbon fiber palm rest with an almost bezel-less display. The small edges allow fitting a 15.6 inch screen inside such a small frame.
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Pro
 Small and lightweight for a workstation

It is surprisingly small and lightweight for being a workstation-type laptop. With the weight ranging from 1.8kg to 2kg and with the dimensions of 35.8 x 23.5 x 1.7 cm, it really is a portable workstation laptop.
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Pro
 Reasonable battery life

With the Ultra HD screen the battery lasts for about 4 hours of general usage. This is with the smaller 3-cell (56Wh) battery. Note that, if you’re choosing the bigger 6-cell (81Wh) battery, the hard drives are limited to the M.2 PCIe drives with no secondary storage option.
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Pro
 Silent during light usage

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Pro
 Great performance for graphics-related work or gaming

The included hardware corresponds to a moderately powerful workstation laptop. The video card has certified drivers that are optimized for performance with specific applications, like AutoCAD or DCC (Digital Command Control). Similarly, all of provided processors have four cores for high multi-tasking capabilities while the 32GBs of RAM allow running large projects. This combination makes it an attractive option for rendering, 3D modeling, and similar tasks.
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Con
 Palm rest gets greasy

The carbon fiber coating is very susceptible to the sweat of your hands. The continuous contact with the skin can make the palm rest greasy and uncomfortable. It has to be cleaned regularly in order to avoid it.
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Con
 Not ideal for video calls

It has very awkward webcam and microphone locations making it rather unsuitable for video calls. The webcam is located under the screen, instead of on top, which creates a strange angle. It can also be partially covered by fingers when typing. Similarly, the microphone is located at a weird place - at the very front of the frame. At such a close position it can more easily distort your voice.
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Con
 Premium pricing

The price seems a bit steep for what you’re getting.
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Con
 Lacks certain keys

It has no numpad which would typically ease the input of numbers. It even has enough space for it. In addition, the navigation keys (arrows) are replaced with Page Up, Page Down, Home, and End keys.
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Con
 Loud during high workload

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Pro
 Best key travel and activation force for a chiclet style keyboard

Once you've typed on this, you can't go back to other laptop keyboard, especially in low-light when you engage the backlighting for it.
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Con
 Cumbersome and heavy, with middling battery life

Everything in life is a trade-off; here performance comes at the expense of weight and battery longevity.
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Pro
 Comes with a dedicated 10-key number pad

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Pro
 Extremely customizable keyboard backlighting

Through the use of MSI's proprietary software (which comes bundled with the laptop), the user can configure the keyboard backlighting however they see fit. For example it can be configured to respond to in-game events such as making the backlighting red when low on health or blinking green when you need more ammo.
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Pro
 The trackpad provides an overall great feeling of control

The trackpad has a brushed-plastic design which offers a grippier feel to it. This helps reduce inaccurate clicks and gives the user an overall comfortable feeling of control when using it.
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Pro
 Does not overheat easily

There are fans on almost every side of this laptop. Two on the back, two on front and four below. These fans are excellent in keeping the laptop and the GTX 1060 card cool even under heavy load.
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Pro
 Great performance for the price

Equipped with a GTX 1060, which is a very good GPU in terms of price/performance ratio, the GE62VR offers great performance for a relatively low price. It can play latest-gen games such as Total War: Warhammer or the latest Doom at 50-60FPS on highest settings while still remaining relatively cool.
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Con
 The speakers should be better for this price

The speakers are decent at best. They are pretty small and do a good job when watching movies or TV, but start showing some problems when listening to music for long periods of time.
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Con
 Low battery life

Battery life on the GE62VR is average at best. It's rather low when gaming (no more than 1.5 hours), which is to be expected. But even when doing simple tasks such as browsing the web and watching videos, the battery will not last more than 3 hours.
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Con
 Has a lot of bloatware

Out of the box, the GE62VR has quite a lot of bloatware. There are at least eight different applications installed out of the box that are meant to do one thing or another that Windows 10 alone is perfectly equipped to handle.
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Pro
 Great performance

The MacBook pro offers great performance both for day-to-day stuff and more niche graphic-related activities. The latest model also has had an update in hardware specs where both the CPU and GPU have been upgraded to their respective latest generations. The 16GB to 32GB help with performance as well and the SSD speeds are unmatched in the laptop market which also helps with general performance.
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Pro
 The default macOS is very developer friendly since it's a Unix

OSX is based on XNU (Darwin) kernel, it's certified Unix and arguably a lot more developer friendly than Windows. Development for Unix is native on OS X. There's a large selection of great development tools available for OSX. The operating system itself comes bundled with a powerful terminal emulator, called Terminal. Additionally, Apple provides tools, like Xcode, an IDE that contains a comprehensive collection of tools for developing OSX and iOS software, for free.
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Pro
 The OS is exceptionally easy to use

Macbooks are famous for working out of the box. The default operating system (macOS) is also exceptionally easy to use even for people who have never used it before. Most people will not need to customize or change anything since all the apps just work out of the box. The people who like to customize things and tinker with their systems will also find it pretty easy to do so, considering the fact that macOS is a Unix and allows varying degrees of control to users.
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Pro
 Both the hardware and software are designed in-house

Both the operating system and the hardware are designed by Apple and are made to be as compatible as possible from the get-go. Any drawback that the hardware might have compared to competitors, is made up by the great compatibility between the hardware and OS. Furthermore, because Apple controls the hardware that goes inside their laptops, they can be sure that every OS release will be fully compatible even with their older hardware, ensuring software compatibility for many years after the laptop is released.
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Pro
 Amazing build quality

The MacBook Pro has an all-aluminum body that looks great and is sturdy enough that worries of accidentally damaging are mostly alleviated. It has a robust lid, well-spaced back-lit keyboard with speakers on each side of the keyboard and an excellent button-less trackpad.
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Pro
 One of the best SSDs that can be found on a laptop

With read speeds at 3.1Gbps and write speeds at around 4.7Gbps, the SSD used in the Macbook Pro is the best in the market by far. This doesn't just mean opening/saving files is quicker, but it also has a pretty huge impact on general application performance.
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Pro
 Extremely portable

The latest Macbook Pro has a trimmed down design compared to predecessors. It's 0.61 inches (15.5 mm) thick and and weighs 4.02 pounds. It's thinner than Macbook Air even.
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Pro
 Good customer support

Apple offers support over the phone worldwide, provides support in Apple retail stores and in stores of authorized resellers and has community forums where users can help users.
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Pro
 One of the best trackpads around

The Macbooks are renowned for having the best trackpad out of any laptop. It has full gesture support, you can configure in the software how much pressure you want before it physically clicks and the finger tracking is perfect.
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Pro
 One of the best trackpads around

The Macbooks are renowned for having the best trackpad out of any laptop. It has full gesture support, you can configure in the software how much pressure you want before it physically clicks and the finger tracking is perfect.
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Con
 You need dongles or a dock to connect USB-A devices

There are no USB-A ports, so you'll need a dongle or a dock to use things like webcams.
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Con
 Requires the use of proprietary firmware

The source code of the firmware isn't available for users to audit or modify.
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Con
 Hard to repair or upgrade the hardware

The battery and other components are glued in, and the battery blocks access to other parts. The battery will wear out eventually, and the fact that it's glued in means that Apple prevents you from easily repairing or upgrading a MacBook Pro.
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Con
 Limited gaming performance

The Macbook lacks a dedicated GPU, so gaming performance will be limited. That said it comes with the best integrated graphics on the market and will be able to play modern games on low settings well.
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Con
 Glossy screen

Apple has removed the matte-screen option from its lineup, an unfortunate decision that reduces the usability of the computers and means you get less work done. You won't realize how much time you spend moving your head around to get reflections off whatever you're trying to see until you switch to a matte screen. Those "deep blacks" and "rich colors" that you were supposed to get from a glossy screen are not present, since they're buried behind a sheen of reflection under all lighting conditions.
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Con
 The keyboard is unique in how it feels and some people may need some time to get used to it

The keyboard on the Macbook has a unique feeling with the keys having relatively short travel distance.
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